The Thimble
by SnapeSeraphin
Summary: You will die alone and unloved....just like me. Wendy must have heard the Captain utter those last, fateful words. What if she acted on them?


**Disclaimer**  
Written for entertainment purposes only.

**Author´s note **  
I have only recently seen the 2003 Peter Pan movie and I´m in love. With Captain Hook of course. A very little sentence near the end caught my attention and it placed this plot bunny in my head that wouldn´t leave me alone.

The story starts with the scene where Captain Hook has Peter thrown onto the deck of the Jolly Roger and is about to kill him.

I hope you´ll enjoy.

* * *

"You will die alone…" the unkind words ripped a hole in Wendy's heart, as did the cruel eyes the colour of forget-me-nots that looked at her briefly before finishing: "... and unloved."

Wendy felt her heart breaking at those last words coming from Captain Hook. Undeserved words, for she did love Peter and she was sure the Lost Boys did as well. But what broke her heart at that very moment, was the fact that she would never have the chance to tell him now.

She watched, frozen in fear and grief as Hook held Peter in his uncaring grip for a couple of moments, before throwing him harshly to the deck of the Jolly Roger.

She was unaware of the tears streaming down her cheeks as she watched Peter lying there placidly, not even an attempt at resisting the fate Hook had planned for him. The will to fight seemed to have left him entirely.

Held securely and with no means of escape Wendy watched as the fierce pirate Captain raised his right, hooked arm high above his head and she knew, as did the Lost Boys, that Peter had only a couple of seconds left to live.

"Nooo!" she screamed, bashing into the face of the pirate that held her with the back of her skull, wrenching away from his slackened grip and launching herself at Captain Hook, clasping his raised arm tightly against her chest.

Hook furiously yanked his arm towards his own chest, thereby dragging her in front of himself. He looked down at her with contempt written all over his face, the forget-me-not blue of his eyes that had entranced her as she first laid eyes on them as cold as if they were frozen.

He threw her away from his person, the deck of the Jolly Roger no colder or less unforgiving than its Captain as she landed beside Peter.

"SILENCE ALL..." Hook bellowed, his voice devoid of emotion, "...for a Wendy's farewell." His tone took on a sarcastic quality at those last words.

Instinctively she rolled onto her side so that she was facing the boy that represented everything that was joyous about childhood.

"Peter.." she called, her voice broken and desperate.

The blond boy lying on the deck beside her did not acknowledge her words. In fact, he hadn't even looked in her direction since the moment she had hit the deck next to him. Wendy felt her heart constricting at the thought that even now, Hook might be proven right after all. If she couldn't convince Peter that she loved him, the Captain would surely have no problems killing him and Peter would die, believing the venomous words. He might as well truly die alone and unloved.

'Just like me.'

The soft words were clear as a bell in her head. There was anguish in their tone, a depth of feeling unexpected by her. And as she finally realised who she heard utter those very words less than a couple of heartbeats ago, Wendy Moira Angela Darling was so utterly stunned she forgot to breathe.

"Well?" Hook's terse question galvanised her into action. She moved her mouth closer to Peter's ear, her heart beating hopefully once more.

"Peter....I'm sorry I have to grow up," she said softly, her voice breaking in spite of her renewed hope. "But you must know that I will never forget you and..." here she faltered slightly. Hook harrumphed contemptuously at her fumbling.

She gathered her courage and soldiered on. "And the part of me that will always remain a child will love you forever."

Peter gave no indication that he had even heard her, staring straight up at the stars unseeingly. Hook rolled his eyes as if he'd never heard such utter drivel, grabbed her roughly by the arm and yanked her upright.

"That's quite enough, I'd say," he declared, disdain dripping from every word. He didn't even look at her as he pushed her to the side and once again prepared to gut his nemesis with his razor-sharp hook that earned him his name...

..only to discover he was hampered anew by Wendy having thrown her arms around his.

"Captain," she spoke quickly before he had the opportunity to act upon the rage she saw in his eyes.

"What is it now, Miss Darling?" he asked through clenched teeth, his tone and intonation clearly displaying his impatience and barely-controlled anger.

Wendy gathered her courage. "Captain, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to say goodbye to Peter before you murder him," she spoke calmly. A vein started to visibly throb at Hook's temple at the word 'murder'.

Before he had the chance to do more than growl menacingly, however, the story-teller continued: "I wish to give you a token of my gratitude."

At this, the pirate Captain's eyebrows shot up into his hairline, a disbelieving, condescending little smile quirking his mouth.

"A token of your gratitude?" he repeated in such a tone as to make the gathered pirates guffaw mindlessly. "And what, my beauty, would you have that would interest me?"

He turned away from her, freed his arm and once again prepared to strike Peter, who hadn't even moved during the time that she had diverted the Captain's attention and was still lying placidly on the deck, awaiting his end.

"A thimble!" Wendy cried, her voice rising with her desperation as she threw herself bodily in front of Hook, blocking his access to Peter Pan. She didn't falter at the fierce look he threw her, telling her without words that if she didn't get out of his way soon, he had no qualms about plunging his hook in two bellies that night.

"I wish to give you a thimble," she said bravely, although she couldn't help her voice wavering, "as a token of my gratitude."

This, at the very least took the Captain by surprise. It didn't take him long to regain his composure though.

"A thimble," he repeated derisively, "how very like a _girl_." Again the pirates laughed as if on cue.

"What in the world made you think I have a use for such a thing?"

"Nothing," Wendy countered, the vehemence in her voice mostly for show, "but it is all that I have left to give and I wanted to show you my gratitude." She briefly closed her eyes, squeezing out a couple of tears and prayed the next part would work. "As a lady to a gentleman."

At the sight of her tears, Hook convinced himself he was unmoved. The tears of a woman usually had little sway over him, unless paying attention to them was to his own advantage. When she called him a 'gentleman' however, she managed to hit him in his weak spot.

In spite of being a pillaging, plundering pirate, who didn't sleep a wink less if he killed someone, Captain James Hook of the Jolly Roger, prided himself on being a gentleman. Not that he ever had much competition in Neverland, but that is besides the point.

As Wendy Darling insinuated he behaved in an un-gentlemanly fashion, he wanted to bristle, brush her comment off and get on with getting rid of Pan, but unfortunately for him, she was right.

Both in calling him a gentleman and in insinuating he was behaving as less than one by refusing her present.

He huffed impatiently and really looked at the girl that had thrown herself between him and sweet revenge for the first time since he had started on killing Peter Pan that night.

"Oh very well, get it over with already," he ordered, "give me your precious thimble!"

Wendy took another deep breath and briefly looked down at her cupped hand. This part of her plan required the most courage of all and at the moment she severely doubted she had any left.

But she was their only hope now. She had no choice.

She looked up at the pirate Captain in front of her, took in the dark, windswept curls, the rich deep red velvet of his coat, the shining steel of his hook, but most of all those beguiling eyes, the colour of forget-me-nots. She allowed herself to remember the first time she had laid eyes on him and how entranced the budding woman in her had been by his masculinity.

She brought her cupped hand up towards his jaw slowly, as if she were afraid to startle him. Hook, for his part, seemed to be caught in the moment for now and didn't move.

When her hand was almost next to his ear, adorned with a great earring, she gave him a conspiratorial look and bent closer, as if she meant to share a secret with him.

She had prepared herself for the fact that she would find this part utterly revolting, but was pleasantly surprised to note quite the opposite, actually. In contrast to most of his men, Hook appeared to bathe himself regularly, for as she moved closer, Wendy could smell nothing but the faint smell of soap and cologne, overlain with the salty smell of the sea and the freshness of the Neverland winds.

"One must never underestimate..." she whispered into his right ear, "...the power..." she moved slightly back, "...of a thimble."

Her breath ghosted against his cheek at those last words and if Hook had any idea what was about to happen, he didn't have the time to react before Wendy softly placed her lips against his.

The Lost Boys looked on in utter shook as their mother and sister kissed their greatest enemy.  
The pirates collectively held their breath, unconsciously waiting for the moment where their Captain would shoot the girl for her insolence.

Wendy, for her part, noticed nothing of all this.

You see, she had never kissed or been kissed before. When Peter came to take her to Neverland, she had been on the brink of womanhood, but she hadn't crossed the last line yet. Not until her lips met those of James Hook.

Now that she was this far however, she didn't know how to go on. As already mentioned, she had been pleasantly surprised by the fact that Captain Hook didn't smell like any of his men. As soon as she touched his mouth with her own, she was also surprised that his lips were so very soft. She wouldn't have expected that from so harsh a man. Nor the warmth of his body that she could clearly feel now that she was so very close to him.

The hand that had reached towards his left ear, more to distract him from her other actions than anything else, had found its way to his jaw, which was strong and smooth beneath her fingers as she cupped her hands around his head.

Some deep-rooted instinct compelled her to angle her head, moving her lips against the Captain's in the process. She relaxed infinitesimally as she noted how good it felt to kiss someone, even if that someone were, technically speaking, one's enemy. Her hands moved up to bury themselves in his abundant curls, as if she were afraid he would get away from her. Another surprise awaited her in their unexpected softness.

A violent shudder went through the Captain's frame.

Wendy's eyes flew open and she stared dumbly at the face at such close proximity to her own.

When Hook's words had finally registered in her brain, she had realised that the pirate Captain was unhappy with his lonely existence. She had realised that this might give her an opening to influence his emotions, if only she managed to convince him of her sincerity.

And then she remembered. The hidden kiss at the right-hand corner of her mouth, the one that was only to be used for one special someone... During her stay in Neverland she had secretly wished, now and again, that the kiss would turn out to be Peter's. In a way it could still be for his benefit.

She had meant to reach the pirate Captain's emotions by kissing him on the mouth, the way only a woman kisses a man, but now that she was staring at his face from a mere inch away, the forget-me-not-blue of his eyes hidden beneath his closed lids, the smell of wind and sea in her nose, Wendy knew that she had inadvertently given him the hidden kiss in the corner of her mouth. She also knew that it was irrevocably his now. And she also knew, although she couldn't quite explain it, having had no experience with a woman's intuition so far, that it was meant to have been his all this time.

All in all, it was an ending to a story she would have been proud of to tell and that thought made her smile as she finally, softly broke free from him.

Captain Hook, for his part, had only been impatient when Wendy Darling accused him of un-gentlemanly behaviour. He had wanted to get it all over with, so that he could continue his revenge on the one that had cost him his hand.

As the girl bent closer to him, he hadn't felt threatened in the least. After all, what was one little girl going to do to him, Captain James Hook, feared by Lost Boys, Indians and pirates alike?

The moment her breath ghosted across his lips, he amended the little girl part. Clearly, she was all but a woman now. Still, he had been completely and utterly unprepared for the feeling of her lips on his own.

It had been an awfully long time since anyone had kissed James Hook. So long, in fact, that he had quite forgotten what it felt like. His shock had kept him frozen, unable to move, or even to reciprocate as the girl angled her head, causing the most delicious friction. Although his eyes had closed of their own accord, the rest of his body seemed utterly disconnected from his mind and his arms therefore hung limply at his sides as Wendy Darling did her worst.

He wasn't unable to feel, though and as her hands buried themselves in his hair he couldn't suppress the shudder that went through his body at the delicious tingling it elicited in his scalp.

Finally, as she drew back from him, her lips disconnecting from his, he was able to open his eyes and stare in bewilderment at the smiling young woman in front of him.

"The hidden kiss was yours all along, Captain Hook," she said and didn't appear to be afraid of him at all. Then again, it was probably somewhat challenging to be afraid of someone who was gaping at you, completely immobile.

Wendy felt her smile faltering, as Hook stared at her in disbelief. Was he going to be angry? Upset?

She looked straight into his forget-me-not blue eyes, empty and devoid of any emotion.

After what seemed an eternity, Hook blinked. Blinked again. And finally seemed to break free from whatever had him spellbound.

Unable to divert his gaze from the young woman in front of him, he staggered to his feet, unwittingly holding out his right arm to one of his crew, who hastily stepped forward to grab his Captain by the arm and help him regain his footing.

"You...," Hook started to say, his voice hoarse, "You...THAT WAS NO THIMBLE!" he roared suddenly.

Wendy Darling just sat there, kneeling in front of the Captain and smiled.

"You gave me a kiss!" Hook growled as if it were the greatest injustice anyone had ever done him.

Wendy nodded solemnly. "Twas."

This seemed to only enrage Hook further. "You.." he started, all but choking on his anger, "...why?"

"Why what?" she asked.

"WHY DID YOU KISS ME?" he hollered.

Wendy got to her feet gingerly, so she could look him in the eye from a more equal height.

"Because I wanted to prove to you you are not unloved," she said earnestly.

"You..._what_?"

"I heard you," she explained. At his uncomprehending look, she continued: "When you told Peter he would die alone and unloved, I heard you saying: 'Just like me.' "

"And so you started this charade to convince me I am not unloved," Hook concluded, the sarcasm creeping back into his voice. "You wanted to trick me into believing you love me, so that I would be in a magnanimous mood and ...oh...let your friend Pan here live, maybe?"

Wendy shook her head, aghast at the turn things were taking.

"No, that was not it at all!" she exclaimed, even though that was exactly what she had been thinking.

In the blink of an eye, Hook was in front of her, the flat side of his hook forcing her chin up so that she was unable to look away from his eyes, unable to turn away from their fury.

"You _lie_," he said, his voice soft, low and murderous.

She was silent.

"SMEE!" he yelled, without moving his eyes from hers.

"Yes Cap'n?"

"Get a length of rope and have it hung from the yardarm. After I am done killing Peter Pan, we'll _hang_ Miss Darling." Wendy felt a cold shiver run down her spine as she saw the glimpse of red in his eyes.

"After I am done cutting out her treacherous tongue!"

Giving her one last furious look, he was about to turn away from her when she cried out.

"You're right! I'm sorry I lied, you're right! I was hoping to confuse and hopefully distract you enough for us to escape."

Her heart clenched painfully at the expression of grim satisfaction on his face.

"But what I didn't realise, is that it was you."

Hook took one step back in her direction.

"That it was me, who...?"

"That it was you who the kiss belonged to," she explained.

"Stop talking nonsense, girl! What kiss?"

"The hidden kiss in the corner of her mouth!" Michael yelped, unable to keep quiet.

"Just like mother's," John added, as Hook squinted and angled his head to get a better look at the corner of Wendy's mouth.

"I was trying to trick you, Captain, into believing that you are not unloved," Wendy bravely continued, although she felt a little awkward with the Captain staring at her mouth like that.

"But what I didn't realise, is that it was true: you are not unloved." Hook's gaze relocated to her eyes at this.

"If the hidden kiss in the corner of my mouth is yours," Wendy explained meticulously, understanding that the concept was quite alien to the pirate Captain, "then it is I who love you."

"You...you...what?" Hook whispered, and Wendy thought that maybe he was starting to believe her.

"You won't die alone and unloved, Captain," she repeated patiently, "because I have always adored a good villain."

"And gentleman," Hook added nonsensically.

"And gentleman," Wendy smilingly acknowledged.

"What about Pan?"

Wendy looked at her friend laid on the deck of the Jolly Roger.

"As I just told him, the part of me that will always remain a child, will love him forever."

"You cannot love the both of us!" Hook exclaimed, raising his right arm, the hook threateningly close to her face.

"Not in the same way, no," she agreed.

"I love Peter as one loves fond memories and one's best childhood friend." She kneeled next to Peter's still form and gently kissed his forehead.

Captain Hook looked with an emotion churning in the pit of his stomach that couldn't be described as anything but envy.

Peter slowly started smiling, he blinked and then his gaze focused on Wendy. She smiled back at him as she got up and reached him her hand.

As soon as he had regained his feet, she turned towards Hook, who was still looking at her as if mesmerized, his hook still raised.

"Whereas you James Hook," Wendy said as she slowly advanced on him, "I love as a woman."

She put one finger against his hook and pushed it to the side, the Captain doing nothing to stop her. As she moved close enough for her to once again smell his cologne, she slowly turned her face up towards him.

"And the hidden kiss will always be yours," she whispered.

The Captain swallowed, clearly swayed by what she was saying.

"A...a kiss?" he inquired somewhat hoarsely, looking as if he still couldn't quite believe her but desperately wanted to at the same time.

"There is always one more left," Wendy reassured him.

Hook stared at her eyes, then the corner of her mouth, where indeed the hidden kiss appeared to be winking at him, then back at her eyes again.

The next thing Wendy Darling knew, she was crushed against his warm body, the smell of sea, wind and Hook enveloping her, his lips on her own.

And as she felt the warmth of that kiss lazily unfurl through her body, she knew that she had been right.

The Lost Boys and the pirates alike were at first unable to do anything but stare at the repeat of that first kiss.

Well, not exactly a repeat, since this kiss had actually been initialized by the Captain and from the looks of it he was a more than willing participant.

Soon, however, their attention shifted, because a strong wind had started to blow, rattling the sails against the mast and the rigging hanging from them.

Wendy and the Captain were totally oblivious to this fact.

When the Jolly Roger however started to rise and fall on increasingly high waves, the both of them were forced to let go of one another and take a look at what was happening around them.

The ominous clouds that had been threatening them let loose a veritable downpour, all of them sodden to their shirts within no time at all.

The Captain made for the railing of the ship, looking down at the turbulent waters beneath them, the wind forcing his long hair away from his face. The water by now was so wild that every once in a while a splash of it reached him even at his high perch. Not that it made any difference with the downpour.

He turned around, grinning maniacally, before he started bellowing orders to his men, who scurried to obey him.

Wendy looked on in bemusement as Hook ran from the front of the ship to the back, from the looks of it completely forgetting that he had been battling Pan, or that he and the Lost Boys were actually still on his ship.

She was about to conclude that he had even forgotten about her and what had just transpired between them, when he came running up to her, grabbed her upper arm in excitement , while he sank his hook into the main mast to anchor them to the ship.

"It's raining! And there's a strong wind and high waves! I can't remember how long I have longed for a good storm!" he bellowed over the noise of the storm.

Wendy couldn't do anything but smile at his exuberance, new to this almost youthful side of Hook.

He roughly pulled her towards him and gave her another kiss. As if on cue, the wind got stronger, the waves got higher and lightning lit the sky.

Wendy took a look around her, then turned back to her pirate Captain, holding onto his coat.

"I think it's you!" she yelled at him.

"What do you mean?"

She pressed herself up against his body and kissed him, the taste of his lips mingling with the rain that was dripping down their faces.

At that exact moment the Jolly Roger moved upwards on a high wave.

"See?" Wendy yelled triumphantly.

Hook looked at the sky and the rain increased tenfold; it felt as if somebody was just endlessly upending buckets of water over their heads. Then, just as suddenly, the rain stopped and the wind dropped to a more manageable level.

He grinned at her, his forget-me-not blue eyes shining.

"Thank you, my beauty," Hook said as he kissed her once more. "I have never been able to control Neverland's weather before. I thought only Pan had that ability."

"I doubt I had anything to do with it, Captain" Wendy said humbly.

"I do have a first name, you know," he murmured, pulling her closer to him. They were both soaked to the skin and the hug was somewhat uncomfortable because of it.

But Wendy Darling didn't mind.

" I'm aware...James."

He grinned wolfishly at her as another downpour began.

"How very you that you should want a storm," Wendy commented.

"You're not going to make it rain all the time, are you _James_?" A boyish shout sounded from above them. Hook looked up at Peter Pan, who seemed to be supremely unbothered by the downpour, despite his comment.

"I should think not," Hook called, in what could almost pass as an amiable voice. "As long as I have my storyteller."

"She will always love me, Hook, she said so!" Peter taunted.

"But like a little girl, Pan!" the man standing next to Wendy Darling yelled at the sprite flying circles around them. "She loves _me_ like a woman!"

Peter, miraculously, smiled at that.

"Until we meet again, Hook!" he crowed. "Don't forget your sword."

"I won't," murmured the pirate Captain, but his attention was already back at the woman at his side.

His forget-me-not eyes twinkled as he bent his head toward hers.

"I think I rather like thimbles," he said, then claimed her lips in another kiss.

The End


End file.
